Legal & Ethical Issues in Healthcare: UK Laws and Principles

This essay provides an overview of the legal and ethical issues prevalent in the UK healthcare system. It begins by introducing the advancements in medical laws and technologies and their impact on healthcare practices. The essay discusses the four standard ethical principles—respect for individuals/autonomy, justice, nonmaleficence, and beneficence—highlighting their contributions and limitations. Key legal issues such as medical negligence, informed consent, and antitrust problems related to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are examined. Furthermore, ethical issues including patient confidentiality, informed consent, and euthanasia are addressed. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding these legal and ethical considerations for healthcare professionals and administrators to maintain the integrity and reputation of the medical field. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Legal and Ethical issues

INTRODUCTION
In the medical laws of the United Kingdom, so far there have been several
advancements in the medication sector that have interchanged the entire field
of therapeutic practice. This has made it conceivable to analyse diseases
quicker and more precisely. In any case, as modern medications are presented,
this has also renewed the methods of medical practices. Healthcare experts
confronted modern medical technologies, and the segment of healthcare is
administered by a set of rules, directions, laws, and moral guidelines. Laws are
outlined to ensure people make choices approximately their healthcare
standards. In expansion, it also laid down the duties of healthcare professionals
(Halpin,2020). However, there are contradictory measures between legitimate
and moral measures. While lawful guidelines are set by the administration
laws, whereas, ethical guidelines do not essentially have a legitimate premise

Four standard principles
The major point of view regarding the four standard principles is backed by and
relates to the question in the hand of these principles.
 Respect for individuals/ autonomy
 Justice
 Nonmaleficence (do not harm others)-
 Beneficence (do good)

Contributions of the principles
 Drawing standards that are recognizable by the individuals.
 Congruous with both outcome-based and duty-based hypotheses (regarding,
respect for individuals and prevailing justice is duty-based and nonmaleficence
and beneficence is the outcome-based).
 Gives valuable and reasonable guidelines for particular activities.
 Offers an adequate strategy for general medical ethics (Panigutti, Monreale,
Comandé, and Pedreschi,2022).
 Requires evaluating and adjusting, adaptable, respectively to specific
circumstances.

Struggles of the principles
 Needs a binding together ethical hypothesis that ties standards together to provide
guidelines
 Principles can struggle and the hypothesis gives no decision making procedure to
resolve the disagreement
 Troublesome to examine and equalize different principles
 Autonomy in few societies alludes to unique autonomy

Continue…
The most legitimate issues within the healthcare framework related to medical
negligence are informed assent and secrecy. Here are a couple of lawful issues
that influence the healthcare framework on a conventional basis:
 Antitrust problems and ACO- Accountable Care Organizations (ACO)
comprise bunches of specialists, clinics, and other healthcare suppliers, who
collaborate intentionally to supply facilitated high-quality care to patients.
Among the few programs put forward by the medical laws that give points to
extending healthcare quality and lowering the pricing. The foremost
conspicuous is the accountable care organization. The ACO requires healthcare
suppliers to work in an enclosed manner to realize facilitated care, diminished
prices, and expanded quality.

Ethical issues
Ethical issues regularly include the points of confidentiality, informed consent, and
patient-doctor connection. Underneath there are a few ethical problems that
commonly emerge within the healthcare system :
 Confidentiality of patients
 Informed Assent
 Euthanasia and assisted physician suicide

CONCLUSION
Each day, patients, families, and healthcare experts confront ethical and legitimate
legal choices concerning restorative medical treatments, practices, healing centers
administration, and the things that emerge within the healthcare industry. Obtaining a
degree within the field of health care and its management operational structure can
empower, and be aware of the ethical as well as legal problems, which are ought to
be taken into account for upholding the medical background and its reputation. The
four principles are supposedly universally applicable for the betterment.

REFRENCES
 Halpin, S., 2020. Recent changes in UK medical law: implications for
radiologists. Clinical Radiology, 75(10), pp.740-745.
 Enriquez, P., 2021. If you are interested in writing a review of one of the books
listed below, please con-tact the Book Review Editor Dr Beverley Clough: b.
clough () leeds. ac. uk. Reviews are usually about 2,000 words long, but shorter
reviews will be considered with the agree-ment of the Review Editor. Medical
Law Review, 29(2), p.409.
 Samanta, A., Samanta, J. and Beswick, J., 2021. Responsible practice or restricted
practice? An empirical study of the use of clinical guidelines in medical
negligence litigation. Medical Law Review, 29(2), pp.205-232.